Category Archives: Around the Web

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Happy Inauguration Day! If you’re looking for a break from all the coverage on TV, there’s tons of Skyrim stories and videos worth checking out — beginning with fatawesomefilm’s spoof of inventory management in Skyrim. Watch in the embed above.

We’ve reached the final hours of 2012, and since our last update, numerous sites have bestowed year-ending honors to Dishonored.

After receiving thousands of votes, Eurogamer announced that the game topped their Readers’ Top 50 Games of 2012! Big thanks to the Eurogamer community for voting one of our titles #1 for the second year in a row.

Hot (pun intended) off the heels of RAGE’s new add-on, The Scorchers, reviews and impressions are making their way online. Embedded above, IGN shares their 10-minute first look at the content, while sites like The Controller Online, ZTGD, and HiddenAudioLog are already posting their reviews. And this just in, OXM UK scores The Scorchers a 9/10 and declares that it is a “not unpleasant burning sensation.” Hmm.. okay, we’ll take it!

DLC coverage continues with Dragonborn and Dunwall City Trials rounds, after the break…

Dishonored is still being played and replayed, and people are writing many words about their experiences. EDGE talks up the game in its Still Playing column, while 1UP chimes in with a spoiler-filled dissection of one of the game’s endings. Also recommended is the Gamasutra blog entry “Spatial and Social Realism in Dishonored” by Scott Juster, which breaks down why Dunwall is such a believable and lived-in setting.

Elsewhere, co-creative director Harvey Smith has a new column at The Penny Arcade Report where he discusses the genius of Far Cry 2. Here’s an excerpt:

“My ultimate moment of unbridled joy playing FC2 came during a side mission, picked up in the form of an assassination contract via radio tower. A couple of jeeps full of armed men were protecting a convoy carrying my target, a sophisticatedly-dressed man with close-cropped white hair and a burgundy suit riding in an SUV.”

MMORPG.com examines how The Elder Scrolls Online will feel like the TES games you’ve come to love.

And if you’re looking to do some holiday shopping this weekend, don’t forget to check out Steam’s Autumn Holiday Sale – featuring savings on Bethesda and id titles. The sale runs between today and November 26th.

On behalf of everyone at Bethesda, we wish you and your families a happy and safe holiday.

As you enjoy your Saturday afternoon, here’s some highlights from around the web.

We start with The Elder Scrolls Online. This weekend, be sure to grab the all-new Ebonhart Pact wallpaper on the game’s official website. And if you want to learn more about the Alliance comprised of Nords, Dunmer, and Argonians, be sure to read up on ZeniMax Online’s first ‘Ask Us Anything’, which will focus specifically on this pact.

Want more ESO news? Check out these highlights from our recent press event:

Nearly a month has passed since Dishonored’s launch, but the web is still full of stories related to the game. Here’s some highlights worth checking out…

Definitely start with GameFront’s 1-On-1 feature with Dishonored’s Lead Designer, Ricardo Bare. The article examines his career — going full circle from Deus Ex to Dishonored. Here’s a quick tease from the article:

“A twelve-year gaming industry veteran, he made his bones as a junior designer on the original Deus Ex, a game he acknowledges is the spiritual predecessor to Dishonored. An impressive achievement in universe-building and gameplay, Dishonored is built around his view that interactivity, more than story, is key to making a great game. But Bare also writes fiction, with several published short stories and his debut novel due for release in spring, 2013.”

Elsewhere, check out these links:

In the embed above, Polygon’s Chris Plante and Russ Frushtick discuss really important aspects of Dishonored.</sarcasm>

Received a note this week that the Rice University Department of English is offering a one-time course titled, “Scandanavian Fantasy World: Old Norse Sagas and Skyrim.” Check out the course description below:

This course has two goals. First, it introduces students to fantasy as both psychological concept and driving force in gamer culture; and second, using these paradigms, it considers how and why medieval Scandinavia serves as a locus of modern Anglo-American fantasy. To these ends, students will read selections from Old Norse and Old Icelandic sagas (in translation) as they play different quests within Skyrim. While the course begins by identifying moments of intersection between the worlds of the sagas and of Skyrim (inclement environments, supernatural figures, mythologies), the course is not in any means meant to map the former onto the latter. The purpose of establishing these connections is to then consider how elements of medieval Scandinavian culture have been taken out of historical milieu and literary context, morphed into unfamiliar shape, and appropriated towards other fantastic pursuits. We’ll consider the political saga of Skyrim, with its emphasis on Empire and rebellion, as pursuits made possible by way of Scandinavia in order to think through what Scandinavian fantasy worlds are really about and why they resonate with contemporary Anglo-American culture.

Note: This course is only for enrolled students at Rice. Fast travelling to Houston to see if you can participate is not an option.